McDowell Media Aide Exits

Rosemary Harold, longtime aide and top media advisor to FCC commissioner Robert McDowell, is looking to exit that post.

In a statement, he said that Erin McGrath, currently assistant division chief in the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, will be joining his staff as acting legal advisor on media issues. Harold "has decided to begin considering other opportunities outside the Commission," said McDowell.

McGrath had also served as interim legal advisor to commissioner Meredith Baker, who herself recently exited for an opportunity outside the FCC with Comcast/NBCU.

"It has been one of the highlights of my tenure at the Commission to have served with Rosemary Harold. She has a keen intellect and deep historical knowledge of media law which is second to none. Her legal skills are unsurpassed." Harold joined McDowell's office in August 2008 as media legal advisor. She been the deputy chief of the FCC's Media Bureau since 2005 and, before that was with the communications firm of Wiley Rein & Fielding, which is headed by former FCC chairman Richard Wiley and has supplied numerous legal minds to the FCC, including former chairman Kevin Martin.